Rice bun maker Shinmei coming to West Sacramento

Shinmei Co. Ltd. of Kobe, Japan, is on a fast track to build a $10 million factory to make rice buns in West Sacramento.

It’s a natural fit. The Sacramento Valley is a leading rice producing region, and West Sacramento has had a long string of success with food production and distribution companies.

At a news conference Friday at West Sacramento’s City Hall, city manager Martin Tuttle said this is another step toward West Sacramento being noted as a great food hub.

The company will build a 28,000-square-foot building on 6 acres in the Southport Business Park.

When it opens, the plant will employ 100 people, and it could grow to 500 employees, making it one of the largest employers in West Sacramento, said Mayor Christopher Cabaldon.

Rice buns are a popular product in Japan and in much of Asia. This plant will help to introduce the nutritious and gluten-free product to America.

When it opens, the plant in West Sacramento will have a capacity of making 6,000 buns per hour, or 40 million buns per year. Over the course of eight years, production could get up to 300 million buns per year, said Mitsuzo Fugio, president of Shinmei.

The factory here will use state-of-the-art cooking and processing equipment never seen before in the United States, he said.

Sacramento builder Potter Taylor & Co. will develop the site and build the plant as a fee developer. The Shinmei will own the plant.

The team hopes to get plans into the city of West Sacramento by Nov. 4 for a plan check and to be under construction early next year. The plant is supposed to be open in the summer of next year.

It is an ambitious time frame, and it can be done with coordination, said Tim Taylor, president of Potter Taylor & Co. He said he will hire a bilingual project manager to coordinate the installation of the Japanese cooking and processing equipment with the city.

Earlier this year, Japan’s Nippon Shokken opened a plant to make sauces for the global market. The Shinmei plant will be next to the Nippon plant in Southport.

Rice buns are available plain along with several flavors, including spicy and Teriyaki.

“I believe this is the right location because we can source all these spices from our neighbor Nippon Shokken,” Fugio said.

“It is not secret that our city, our region and our state has been through some tough times the last couple of years,” he said. He said the announcement of the new plant is a great event, but is the beginning of a new era of recovery and reinvestment.

“Not just holding on but moving on,” Steinberg said.

The company is one of the first to us a new California economic development tax incentive, he said.

Having connections with Japanese companies helped West Sacramento land this deal, said Barbara Hayes, CEO of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization. The fact that a high profile company such as Nippon Shokken has vetted West Sacramento makes it a more appealing site for other Japanese companies, she said. “Hopefully we can get some more.”